>John Prescott Interviewed

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Small addition John forgot to mention that that Pray is only available for this weekend only. After this limited release it wont be available until the day of WHC, April 28th. it can be purchased from the links at the bottom of the interview

GNOF – Hi John, how’s things?

Hi, Jim things are pretty hectic around here at the moment. I’m in the process of laying out 9 books that launch at WHC this coming April, but I’m still managing 4 hours of writing a day so I must be doing something right.

GNOF – It’s been a couple of months since the limited release of Prey, how successful has the release been?

It’s passed even my own expectations. We have sold out of all the limited editions and even sold out of the small hard back run we did during Christmas. So to say the least it’s been a complete 100% success in my eyes.

GNOF – Readers of this blog will know that I loved it, how well has it been received in general?

You know, it’s funny you should ask this. I’m still waiting for that one person to say that they didn’t like it. Everyone that has reviewed it or read it that I’ve seen later tell me they love it and ask when the next book is coming out. To my own surprise I’ve had people read the novel in one to two days, which completely blows my mind. I’m like jeesh…slow down on the reading, and then I think man, if I could just write a 128k word novel in a day…wow, wouldn’t that be nice!

Hmmm, what to say here…that’s a toughie. Let’s see what I can say. Hell will be the darkest book of the trilogy by far. There are lots of things going in between its pages, and I mean LOTS. It will be the biggest of all the books. HELL is done and sitting in my drawer waiting for me to take it out and start the revision process. The first draft is close to 180k words long, so in layout terms that’s close to another 200 pages longer than Pray. But I don’t think that’s what you’re ‘really’ asking me is it, Jim? Ok, ok…what can I give away…ok, I will give you 5 things.

1.You will see the four angels that are bound at the Euphrates River unleashed upon the world.

2.Aeris will tell the core group some very disturbing things about the history of the Catholic Church and why it was chosen to unite the world into a one world religion.

3.The two prophets at the Wailing Wall will die in an epic battle, as their time to spread the word has run out.

4.One of the core members die so that one of the most unlikely of persons shall live.

5.If you thought Alberto was vile and evil just wait till you see what he is capable of at the end of HELL. You will truly hate and despise this man/thing if I’ve done my job write in telling the story. I think I have and I will say that all of the people who are eagerly waiting this book; their wanting will be tenfold for the last one after reading the ending of HELL.

6.We are going to do a pre-sale event for HELL for those who buy the pre-order copy they will receive a limited edition art print depicting a scene from the novel, HELL. We haven’t decided on a set number of these prints yet but I’m thinking somewhere in the 200-250 range.

Ok, Jim that’s all you get.

GNOF – I never realised you were involved with Dragon Con, what’s your favourite memory of Dragon Con?

Yeah, it all started way back in the late 80’s when Dragon Con hoped for at least 2k in attendance, and I was in art school in Atlanta, my has that changed now. The last stats I saw were in the 40-60k in attendance. It’s a great time and I highly recommend anyone with a love of comics, fantasy, horror, sci-fi or fandom in general to go. I can’t tell you what’s it like you just have to experience it all on your own.

Wow, there are so many great memories of Dragon Con but I still would say my fondest is meeting my favourite artist of all time, Larry Elmore. He is a great friend and we talk regularly and I’ve even had the chance to work with him and art direct him on some projects. I can only thank Dragon Con for that experience and opportunity to allow these things to happen.

GNOF – Could you tell us about White Silver Publishing?

White Silver Publishing is a gaming company that myself and another business partner put together. Its main line is The Chronicles of Ramlar, a fantasy table-top rpg, which is my own creation. Let me tell you creating a world and populating it with many races and creating a pantheon for a world is no easy task. Then you have the geography to consider too. It took me close to 10 years to get everything how I wanted it, but it was a labour of love. I have some good friends in that world that will hopefully see the light of day in a few novels and trilogies if I’m lucky. If you are curious about the game you can go to www.rpgnow.com and check the line out. I will say there is some great art within those pages. Larry Elmore has illustrations in it and one of the covers is done by Ben Wooten, he was an artist that worked at WETA on the Lord of the Rings movies and he was the one who designed and sculpted the Balrog for the movies.

GNOF – So you a bit of Dungeons and Dragons fan?

Well, I did grow up in a small southern town of about 2500 people. It was a great escape and mind exercise, and when not reading I needed something else to do. It has grown so much since then though. It’s practically main stream now. Look at the world dominating MMO World of Warcraft they love Dungeons and Dragons and dedicated the last expansion to Gary Gygax who recently passed away and was the creator of the Dungeons and Dragons game. This and countless others have Gary to thank for the success and jobs they have today.

GNOF – Any chance on revealing any details of your dark children’s series?

Very little at this stage I’m afraid. I’m co-writing it with a friend of mine. We wrote the first four chapters back and forth, and then we set up a basic framework of things and each set off to finish the book. I’m done and she is almost done and then we are going to go back and mesh our two entities together. It’s been a fun ride. I can tell you the title and maybe a bit more, Elli Caskal: Monster Hunter is the title. Elli is a young girl of nine and she believes in monsters, because in her world monsters do exist. This face is proven true when she sees a goblin scampering down her grandmother’s water well in the first chapter.

Her mother teaches at a special school on this very topic, but Elli doesn’t know it deals with monsters. I will say it has tinges of the steam punk craze that’s going around now and some of the good old horror aspects wrapped up within it. I think it will do very well in the kids and young adult market. That’s about all I can say at present.

GNOF – You and the other guys at Dark Continents are gearing up for the big launch how is that going?

It’s going, and it’s a lot calmer than I expected it would be, but we have been planning well in advance for our launch.

That anything is possible if you set your mind to it, and be careful what you ask for.

GNOF – How do you guys decide on who and what gets published?

It’s a joint decision. It was laid out in our by-laws from the start and it will always be that way. Once we start accepting submission Serenity Banks will be the gateway into the company. She has first dibs on seeing everything first before it reaches the rest of us.

GNOF – Do you think World Horror Con will be left standing after you guys get together for the first time?

Not a chance. We want to roll in there like a tornado and just blow everyone away. I think with the quality of our books we are releasing we are going to do just that. We have some very talented writers within our ranks and I can’t wait for the public to get a hold of our products.

On all of us meeting for the first time, I look at it like Bill Denbrough felt in IT when all seven of them were finally together. I’ve heard the click when we formed but I can’t wait to feel it once we are all together in person.

GNOF – So what does the future hold for you?

Writing plenty more stories and novels I’m hoping. I’m having a blast with what I’m working on at the moment and I still have plenty more things I want to write about and say.